Book 17
3.9
Upon the sea-coast are many cities and rivers, and a country which is very fertile. It will be sufficient to mention the most renowned. The city of Siga.Probably Tafna. the royal seat of Syphax, is at the distance of 1000 stadia from the above-mentioned boundaries. It is now razed. After Syphax, the country was in the possession of Masanasses, then of Micipsa, next of his successors, and in our time of Juba, the father of the Juba who died lately. Zama,Jama. which was Juba’s palace, was destroyed by the Romans. At the distance of 600 stadia from Siga is Theon-limen (port of the gods);According to Shaw, who however did visit the place, its ruins are still to be seen by the present Tucumbrit; others identify it with Areschkul of the Arabs, at the mouth of the Tafna near Rasgun. next are some other obscure places.
3.9
Deep in the interior of the country are mountainous and desert tracts scattered here and there, some of which are inhabited and occupied by Gaetuli extending to the Syrtes. But the parts near the sea are fertile plains, in which are numerous cities, rivers, and lakes.
3.10
Poseidonius says, but I do not know whether truly, that Africa is traversed by few, and those small rivers; yet he speaks of the same rivers, namely those between Lynx and Carthage, which Artemidorus describes as numerous and large. This may be asserted with more truth of the interior of the country, and he himself assigns the reason of it, namely, that in the northern parts of Africa (and the same is said of Ethiopia) there is no rain; in consequence therefore of the drought, pestilence frequently ensues, the lakes are filled with mud only, and locusts appear in clouds.
